ka-chew!, the award-winning and highly successful commercial production company owned by Gabor Csupo and Arlene Klasky, founders of the famed TV creative powerhouse Klasky Csupo, Inc., has completed original animation featured within a high profile Super Bowl spot (which debuted Feb. 3,) promoting CareerBuilder.com, entitled “Firefly.” The announcement was made by John Andrews, ka-chew!’s Executive Producer and Creative Director. To view the “Firefly” spot, please see: <a href="www.kachew.com.dir/EB/page.html”>www.kachew.com.dir/EB/page.html
NOTE: ka-chew!’s animation work also continues to be seen on television and in movie theaters for client Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, via its on-going animated campaign “Mr. Mucus” for Mucinex.
ABOUT THE “CAREERBUILDER.COM” PROJECT:
ka-chew!’s original animation work on “Firefly” involved an “insect fairy” – type character who is devoured by an “evil spider” type character, for a CareerBuilder.com TV spot, through client Wieden+Kennedy, Portland. The new spot was directed by TWC Films’ Suthon Petchsuman. The spot premiered during the Super Bowl on Feb. 3.
ka-chew!’s animation work featured within the CareerBuilder.com spot was directed by Elliot M. Bour, who recently joined ka-chew! from Curious Pictures. (More about Bour below.) Said Andrews, “We’re thrilled to have Elliot Bour joining us, as he dropped perfectly into this Career Builder project. He worked wonderfully with the 2D animators, the CG crew, and Ernie Gilbert, the character designer, on this fun assignment.”
ka-chew!’s production team for the Career Builder project also included CG Supervisor Matt Rosenfeld, who spent the last year as a technical director working on ka-chew!’s award winning “Mr. Mucus” Mucinex campaign for Adams Respiratory Therapeutics. Visual Effects Supervisor and well-known CGI specialist Lochlon Johnston, who also worked on the Career Builder spot for ka-chew!, joined the company from Zoic Studios, where he and Rosenfeld had worked together on numerous projects.
ka-chew!’s Career Builder animation was produced by Senior Producer Michaela Zerbib, also a veteran of the company’s Mucinex work, as well as a longtime animation producer. Zerbib was most recently based in-house with Nickelodeon.
The logo animation for the new Career Builder spot was produced by LA-based Screen Novelties, a ka-chew!-repped stop-motion animation boutique studio. Screen Novelties features the work of directing team Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero, the co-founders of that company. For more info about Screen Novelties, please visit: <a href="www.kachew.com.dir/SM/page.html”>www.kachew.com.dir/SM/page.html
In addition to the CareerBuilder.com “Firefly” spot cited above, Bour’s most recent work, co-directed with Saul Blinkoff, was a five spot anti-smoking campaign entitled, “The Sunny Side Of Truth,” through Curious Pictures, for the Arnold agency in Boston. Bour also spent several years as a feature animator and director, and directed the MTV animated series, “Spy Groove.”
ABOUT ka-chew!:
ka-chew!, a Hollywood-based animation and live action production company owned by Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo, is spearheaded by John Andrews, a 20-year animation industry veteran. Since its founding in l998, the company has worked on a diverse array of projects.
ka-chew! specializes in projects involving live action, design, 2D, CG, or a unique combination. The company has assembled a highly experienced, multi-disciplined team that understands client needs, and has produced award-winning projects for some of the most respected networks and ad agencies in the industry.
ka-chew!’s work has included on-air promotions for ABC, A&E, Discovery, and Paramount Domestic Television, on-air design for ESPN, FOX, E! Entertainment, MTV and Nicktoons, and graphics and title sequences for TV shows including “The Wayne Brady Show,” “The Simple Life,” “Punk’d,” “Nip/Tuck,” “The Osbournes,” and “Kathy Griffin: Life on the D List,” as well as animation for commercial spots from such major advertisers as Campbells, Kraft, Mattel, Lands End and Earthlink, to name a few.
John Andrews first received wide attention as the producer of the “Beavis & Butt-Head” TV series and feature film. He also supervised such other MTV series as “Aeon Flux” and “Daria.” Andrews joined Klasky Csupo in 1998 as part of a revamping and expansion of the company’s “Special Projects” division, originally entitled “class-key chew-po” (which served as a “pronunciation key” for clients.) The name of that division later evolved and has since become known simply as ka-chew!
Bringing his expertise in animation to Klasky Csupo from MTV, Andrews continues building ka-chew!’s directorial and production roster, regularly drawing upon in-house talent, smaller animation and production studios from in and around Los Angeles, the independent animation community and other uniquely creative talents based across the country.
ka-chew! is located at 1238 N. Highland Ave, Hollywood, CA, 90038. The phone is 323/468-3020. For more information, please see www.kachew.com.
